


Take It Or Leave It

by AcornScorn



Series: wha? huh? [1]
Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware, Half-Life
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, brief mentions of the other characters - Freeform, set after act 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:55:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23951152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcornScorn/pseuds/AcornScorn
Summary: Yeah, he’s going to be scarred for life.Especially because of the sight standing in front of him.“Hi, Benrey,” Gordon sighs.Or--The events that transpire after the party at Chuck E. Cheese to Gordon, starting with one annoying skeleton.
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Series: wha? huh? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751677
Comments: 37
Kudos: 754





	Take It Or Leave It

**Author's Note:**

> Hiiiiiiiii I actually finished a fic believe it or not! I can't believe it's for this fandom though LOL. I wanted to tag it as modern AU but I guess it's just more of an AU where they're in the real world and it's not just a video game. Marked T+ but only because there are some swears? And consider it a fix-it fic because I'm not going to let Benrey just die that easily.

It happens as he’s walking home from the party.

Somehow it never occurred to Gordan that the employees at Black Mesa must have lived in the same town to be able to work in the same facility. Still, he’s glad for it, because he recognizes some of the streets and though he’s using what feels like the last of his energy to make it back to his apartment, he’s still hyper-aware of everything. Paranoid.

Yeah, he’s going to be scarred for life.

Especially because of the sight standing in front of him.

“Hi, Benrey,” Gordon sighs. The skeleton runs back and forth across the street sporadically-at this time of the night, there are no cars or other humans in sight. It wouldn’t matter, though-Gordon is the only one who’s ever been able to see Bone-rey.

“You aren’t going home with Tommy and the others?”

Tommy had been their saving grace (once more) and offered Dr. Coomer and Bubby his house to stay at until they found new jobs, since Black Mesa was basically fucked beyond repair. Gordon couldn’t handle another minute with the Science Team, no offense, but now he was wondering if he needed to run back and get Tommy or his dad to help with the skeleton. Before he can make a decision, however, it runs backward and disappears into an alleyway. Gordon ignores it, keeps walking until he makes it to his apartment. 

The elevator door slides shut behind him, but then there’s a beep and he watches it re-open to let on another person.

There he stood, looking unimpressed and pissed off.

“Nowhere else to go?” Gordon asks again, and Benrey just scowls harder.

“I lost my job thanks to you,” he snaps. “And my friends.”

“I knew he couldn’t kill you,” Gordon says.”You lucky son of a bitch.”

But despite his language, Gordon can’t find it in himself to be furious. He’s just so, _so_ tired. 

“Lucky?” Benrey asks, sounding incredulous. “I don’t think so.”

Benrey gets off the elevator with him, which is strange, and then follows him to his front door, which is stranger.

“Why not?” Gordon sighs, digging in his pockets for his keys, which are miraculously intact. “Why aren’t you lucky to be alive?”

“Because I’m stuck with you,” Benrey says bitterly.

Gordon just rolls his eyes and steps inside, and when Benrey follows him, he only says one thing-

“Shoes off, and don’t go growing giant in my apartment. I’ll be so pissed off.”

Benrey mimics him again, voice high and mumbled, as he kicks his shoes off and closes the door with considerable force.

“Where’s your kid?” Benrey asks, surprising both of them, apparently, judging by the way his eyes widen at his own question and how fast he looks down to fumble with his uniform.

“Uhh...he’s, uh. Staying with Mary while I’m working. My ex-wife.”

Benrey snorts. “You’re divorced? Lame.”

In the morning, Gordon figures, he’ll be pissed enough to try throwing a few punches at the security guard. But for now, he just lets out a tired laugh. He feels a burning satisfaction at Benrey’s frown when he realizes his words slide off Gordon like oil on water.

“Yeah, it is pretty lame,” Gordon says. “Not as lame as all your friends turning against you and murdering you after you turn giant and go bat-shit insane, though.”

Benrey’s quiet after that.

Gordon takes pity on the guy, for some reason, and breaks the tense silence after it stretches past ten minutes. 

“I’m going shower. You should probably do the same.”

He was so used to being covered in blood and alien guts that he barely registered it sitting at the Chuck E. Cheese and celebrating. However, now that he was back in his clean house the only thing he was awake enough to grimace at was the feeling of dried blood on his face and in his hair. Seriously, how had they even been allowed in the restaurant? He had no idea. Probably some freaky shit done by Tommy’s dad. 

“I’ll do what I want,” Benrey says coolly. He hasn’t moved from the door. Gordon shrugs. “Fine, but you’ll stay by the door for the rest of today if you don’t.”

He knows that Benrey can do whatever he wants-he’s on a level of power as equally strange and terrifying as Dr. Coomer and Bubby, and in all seriousness if he wanted to kill or hurt Gordon, there was nothing stopping him.

Benrey still doesn’t move. He just jerks his head in a weird nod and turns around to face door. “You haven’t even shown me around,” he says, loudly. Gordon sighs. “Little late in the day for a house tour, Benrey.” He hesitates. “I’ll show you where the other bathroom is.”

Benrey follows behind him like a ghost. His steps make no sound on Gordon’s carpeted flooring. Gordon shows him where the second bedroom is, the bathroom just inside of the room to the left. He feels strange, showing Benrey around-this is where Joshua sleeps, when he visits every other weekend. Seeing the toys scattered around the room make Gordon feel a wave of relief wash over him at the normalcy of it-he could’ve died today, hundreds of times over. But he didn’t. 

No thanks to Benrey for that, though.

The bathroom’s nearly spotless, looking the same as always. “I’ll get you a spare towel,” Gordon says, inching around Benrey and out of the room. He’s not sure what he expects when he comes back, but Benrey hasn’t moved a muscle. “I’m sure you can figure out how the water works. Tomorrow we can figure out what the hell we’re going to do with you.”

“I’m gonna go back home so I can play on my Playstation is what,” Benrey says, giving Gordon one of his classic deadpan glares. “Even though I probably don’t have any friends to play with anymore.”

Gordon doesn’t even have the energy to roll his eyes, or really pay attention to what Benrey’s saying or what he means underneath. “That sucks, man. Good night.”

He somehow manages to shower without drowning himself and pull on a pair of clean sweatpants and a ratty old shirt before he falls into his bed. What would happen now? Would things ever feel normal? What the hell was he supposed to do with Benrey? Even now, sinking deeper and deeper into sleep, Gordon couldn’t help but worry about what would happen next. 

It’s not enough to keep him up, however. He falls asleep in minutes.

  
  


When Gordon wakes up, the first thing he notices is the light coming through the window. His eyes travel to his alarm clock. It’s almost two in the afternoon, but he could still get some more sleep in--

Is what he tells himself before he has the terrifying realization that he’s not the one snoring right now-someone else is in his goddamn bed.

He shoots upright, pulling the covers up to his chin, and gawks at Benrey.

“Why the FUCK are you still wearing that goddamn helmet to sleep?”

“Shut uuup,” Benrey whines, covering his eyes with one hand. “Cuz it’s basically a part of me. Go back to sleep, Feetman.”

“I’m not-no! Why are you in my bed? _When_ did you get in my bed?”

Benrey uncovers his face to show off how hard he can eye-roll at Gordon. “Like, five AM. You said it was cool, man.”

“No, no way. No way did I say that.”

Benrey shrugs and rolls onto his side, but not before grabbing at part of the covers to pull back over himself. “You said ‘hmghhh’, and that sounded like confirmation, so I took it.”

“You _asked_ to sleep in my bed?”

Benrey doesn’t respond. After a minute of sitting upright and getting no other answers out of the security guard-former security guard?-Gordon finally gives up and lays back down. Today his whole body hurts. He figures that’s what running around for hours and getting beaten to hell and back in an HEV suit will do to a person. 

He’s still creeped out. Maybe it has to do with Benrey’s eldritch aura. Or maybe, it’s just because it’s been an embarrassingly long time since he’s shared the bed with anyone.

“Remember when we used to do this?”

He rolls his eyes. “Not in the mood for games, Benrey.”

“No,” Benrey says, rolling over to face Gordon. “I’m-no. I’m serious, bro. When we were younger, and-”

“-played in the mud together, yeah, yeah, you’ve said this before,” Gordon snaps, turning away from Benrey even though it makes his side ache. “That’s a load of crap.”

“I’m serious,” Benrey mutters under his breath. “We did this before, hangin’ out.”

“If that was true, I would remember it,” Gordon says. Benrey was so goddamn irritating, especially when he was trying to lie about pointless shit. He seemed to have given up for the moment, at least, mumbling to himself before falling quiet. Gordon closes his eyes, hoping to God that Benrey _stays_ quiet long enough for him to sleep again.

When Gordon wakes up again, Benrey’s not in the bedroom, but he can hear things being moved around in another room. He gets up with some difficulty, hissing in pain the whole time, and makes his way out to the hall.

Benrey is fiddling with a phone in the kitchen-huh, who even knew he HAD a phone?-and doesn’t look up when he speaks.

“Evening. Bro.”

“Is that what time it is now?” Gordon asks, biting back a yawn. That would explain why he couldn’t see anything outside the window. He goes to his fridge and pulls out a can of root beer, and after a minute takes out a second to offer to Benrey. The man doesn’t even move to take it, so Gordon just sets it on the counter and hopes that it’s a sign enough.

“What are you doing? How long have you been awake?”

“I didn’t sleep after you got all whiney about me being in your bed. You’re welcome.”

Gordon sips his soda loudly in response.

“Trying to message my friend from work. He was working at that place you basically destroyed.”

“I remember,” Gordon says. “You had a hand in that too, though. So did Bubby. And Coomer. Basically everyone but Tommy did.”

“You most of all.”

“You’re lucky I’m still too tired to argue about this,” Gordon sighs. He moves to his living room and sits down, tilting his head back to the ceiling. “I think I need to go to the hospital and get checked out.”

“I can check you out,” Benrey says. Gordon’s eyes flicker to him in time to see Benrey give him a once-over from where he's standing, then nod. “You look fine. I checked.”

“I mean inside. I think at least one of my ribs is broken. And I feel like I could be bleeding internally.”

“That’s where your blood is supposed to be.”

“No, you don’t-okay you probably don’t know anyways, not being human and also being invincible, but that’s actually not always a good thing-”

Before Gordon can say anymore, his phone buzzes. He fishes it out of his pocket to see a message from Tommy.

Tommy C.: _Mr. Freeman can we meet up tomorrow Sunkist wants to see you again I think he really likes you._

He smiles at the text. Each of the members of the Science Team had their pros and cons, but Tommy was the closest to being actual sunshine. Gordon felt almost like an older brother to him, even if they’d only known each other for a few hours at most, and he’s glad that they managed to swap numbers before they split off. He texts back an affirmative.

And then he freezes. How was he going to explain to the others that Benrey of all things was staying with him? And he was _letting_ him-

“Tell me again why I’m letting you crash at my apartment? I mean, you have your own place, right? You mentioned it before.”

Benrey stops messing with his phone long enough to look up at Gordon and level him with a pointed glare. “Yeah, I’m a grown-up. Of course I have my own place.”

“So why aren’t you there?”

Benrey’s eyes go back down to his phone. He says something too quiet for Gordon to hear.

“Speak up, man. Come on-”

“Cuz’ I don’t want to be there.”

Gordon gives him an exaggerated shrug. “It’s your damn house, dude, why wouldn’t you-”

“I don’t want to be there _alone_.”

They fall into silence. Benrey shoves his phone in his pocket and finally reaches for the soda. When he drinks from it, it almost sounds aggressive, like he's poised and ready to argue the second he sets the can down. Gordon holds his hands up in mock surrender. “Fine, okay. I guess I get it. I still don’t know why you picked me over the others since you clearly like them more.”

“That’s not true.”

“Huh?” Gordon stares at Benrey, incredulous, and lets out a bark of laughter. “That’s such a load of shit. You’re just messing with me because it’s fun to piss me off, isn’t it?”

“I’m not lying,” Benrey says, sounding offended. “You keep actin’ like I lie, but I’m honest almost basically always, bro.”

“That’s like saying you’re just sometimes honest. Which doesn’t make me feel any better, by the way.”

“I’m being honest now. Take it or leave it.”

“Fine,” Gordon relents. “I just don’t get why.”

“‘Cuz you’re you.”

Gordon lifts his head at that, raising an eyebrow at Benrey. “Maybe you’re the one that needs to get checked out.”  
“Go ahead. Check me out.”

Benrey actually poses, which earns him a begrudging snort and chuckle from Gordon. 

“Look,” Gordon says at last. He feels a little hesitant bringing it up. “Tomorrow, I’m meeting up with uh, Tommy and the others. Are you going to come?”

Benrey finally moves and drops on the couch next to Gordon, staring straight ahead at the blank TV screen. “Don’t know. Don’t know if I should.”

“You think Dr. Coomer’s gonna punch your daylights out again?”

“Yup.”

Despite knowing better, Gordon joins Benrey in staring at the TV screen, unsure how to respond. It’s a valid fear. Dr. Coomer wasn’t messing around by the end of their experience at Black Mesa.

“Should I go?” Benrey asks. 

“What, meeting them? I don’t know, man-”

“No. Should I leave?”

Oh. He means now. Gordon knows he should say yes-Benrey’s such an asshole, honestly, and like, totally one hundred percent was trying to kill Gordon and his friends only a few hours ago. But now, he’s normal-sized and acting like a pretty average houseguest, and okay, fine. Gordon would feel shitty kicking him out after Benrey just admitted to not wanting to be alone. He gets it because he’s in the same boat. He doesn’t want to be left alone, either. They might have killed the entirety of the US military, but what about the aliens? How many had escaped into the world? Even staying with Benrey (small Benrey, at least) feels safer than being isolated right now. 

“No,” Gordon says. “You should stay.”

He’s not as opposed to the idea as he probably should be.

So they sit and stare at the blank TV screen, sipping soda and tossing insults back and forth every once in a while, until the sun begins to crawl up and Gordon decides he’s probably due for another nap. He doesn’t say anything when Benrey follows him to the bedroom, and he doesn’t say anything when Benrey climbs into bed with him again either.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, say hii to me on Acornscorn#8808 on discord or acornscorns on tumblr! I was promo'ing a server here but turns out it wasn't that great. Please comment/leave kudos if you enjoyed-I'm already considering part 2 to this story ;0!


End file.
